Via American Thinker: Al Jazeera is reporting that Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez is threatening to expropriate oil and gas assets of Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp, Norway’s Statoil, Britain’s BP Plc and France’s Total. According to Al Jazeera these assets produce 600,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Well, who’da thunkit? This threat has been looming for some time. Highlighting how negligent lawmakers have been is the embarrassing fact

Maybe I’ve got my priorities very screwed up, but I find this sort of nonsense much more offensive than, say, nudity. Perhaps it is marginally less a boondoggle than purchasing the “rights” to name a star after someone, but I ran across this disturbing business in an ad hosted on ABC News’ website. The LifeGem ® is a certified, high-quality diamond created from the carbon of your loved one as

Well, if by “Heaven,” one means “in the mystical ether of cyberspace.” Which, let’s face it, were the Good Book written today — or were Neal Stephenson God — that’s where Heaven would be. Congrats!

Because were it a “Saturday open thread post”, I’d have written something like “open thread!” — and not required that you keep your comments limited to the specific topic of this particular non-open thread thread, which is this: if you could discuss anything you wished in a post that is decidedly NOT a “Saturday open thread post,” what might that be? And be specific, too. Note: Oh. And for the

oatmeal: “LeBron over Kobe?! Jesus — are you ever lucky my religious upbringing forbids me from cracking you over your dumbass skull with a stainless steel serving ladle, is all I have to say.”

And by “torture,” we’re not talking about anything so severe as being wrapped in an Israeli flag, or confronted with a pulled pork sandwich, either: A Colorado fugitive is at the center of an investigation of kidnapping, murder, torture and child abuse that unraveled this week in a small Wisconsin town. Authorities say Michael Sisk, a 25-year-old former Grand Junction resident, was part of a roving band of identity thieves

From ABC’s Jake Tapper: Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okl, claims he overheard Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Barbara Boxer, D-Calf, chatting about how out of control talk radio had become. “They said we’ve got to do something about this,” Inhofe told a talk radio host. “That ‘these are nothing but far right wing extremists, we’ve got to have a balance, there’s got to be a legislative fix to this.’” I’m still

Bring on the next wave of nanny-statist junk science: Dave Taylor always knew his lust for playing “Fallout” and “Total Annihilation” bordered on the pathological. The video games would hold the West Hollywood software programmer in such a viselike grip that he often would play for 24-hour stretches, forestalling sleep, skipping meals and twisting himself in knots to delay bathroom breaks. “It’s super unhealthy,” he said. “But man, I’m just

The steel cage match! Time to break out the nuance, it looks like — particularly if you happen to be a labor-friendly leftist AND a supporter of the idea that socialism has failed largely because it hasn’t been correctly attempted. Because not only has Nobel Peace Prize winner and utopian socialist Lech Walesa committed the unpardonable sin of praising Ronald Reagan for freeing Poland from communism, but he has now

From the AP: BlackBerry handhelds have been called addictive, invasive, wonderful — and now, a threat to French state secrets. That, at least, is the fear of French government defense experts, who have advised against their use by officials in France’s corridors of power, reportedly to avoid snooping by U.S. intelligence agencies. “It’s not a question of trust,” French lawmaker Pierre Lasbordes told The Associated Press. “We are friends with